I just got a request from someone who was contracted by the US Coast Guard Office of boating safety to write a report entitled "The Efficacy of Sponsons on Canoes and Kayaks." She managed to find the 1998 sponson discussion on the paddlewise site. http://www.paddlewise.com/topics/boatequip/sponson.html She is very interested in making use of some of the discussion in her report, but with the paddlewise copyright she needs permission from each contributor to use the material they posted. Where possible she has matched the contributor names to contact info from the Who's who. The following is the list of participants in that discussion. I'll be going through the paddlewise subscriber lists to match up contributors and forward her request to them. If you are on the following list and want to save me from doing any digging please contact me ;-) Kirk -- Participants quoted in '98 sponson discussion: Colin Calder Jim Croft Dana Decker Ralph Diaz (have address) Jackie Fenton (have address) George Gronseth Dan Hagen Chuck Holst (may have defunct addresses) Brian Jones Keith Kaste Wayne Langmaid Bob Myers (have address) Greg Stamer wayne steffens Ted Whitney John Winters Philip Wylie Mark Zen (have address) Scott (KiAyker) (have address) Tom from Kirkland, Washington(?) -- http://fastmail.fm/ - IMAP accessible web-mail *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
On Fri, 11 Oct 2002 19:29:04 UT, I posted: I just asked the author, one Kaitlin O'Hara, for a little more info. I've got contact information for her supervisor at the Coast Guard if anyone needs further validation of her task. The supervisor was CC'ed on her response to me. Things have been quiet lately if someone wants to resurrect the sponson discussion, we may have someones ear. I've BCC'ed Ms. O'Hara on this and sent her info on how to subscribe. Kirk > I just got a request from someone who was contracted by the US Coast > Guard > Office of boating safety to write a report entitled "The Efficacy of > Sponsons on Canoes and Kayaks."-- http://fastmail.fm - Choose from over 50 domains or use your own *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
At 09:35 PM 10/11/02 UT, Kirk Olsen wrote: > >Things have been quiet lately if someone wants to resurrect the sponson >discussion, we may have someones ear. > There was quite an extensive round of discussion on this subject and about this woman and her project on rec.boats.paddle a few weeks ago. The RBP sponsonwars were quite heated a couple years ago, and there were/are still plenty of hard feelings. Old timers on this echo will remember that this is **why** there is a Paddlewise in the first place -- a certian crazy person I will not stoop to name flooded the old Wave Length listserver with so much garbage that it was impossible to discuss anything else, and the decision was made to set up a moderated listserver. While there may be some situations in which sponsons might be useful, they mostly strike me as a cure that's worse than the disease. They're hard to deploy, and impede rolling and bracing. Worse, they're a not totally reliable mechanical device -- in the Watertribe challenge on Lake Michigan this summer, one guy -- who happens to be a more or less advocate of them -- tried to deploy a set so he could take a long on-water rest break, only to discover that one of the two wouldn't hold air. I'm just glad he didn't really need them! The idea of sponsons being mandated by a "government-as-nanny" makes me sick to my stomach. (I could use stronger language but this is a family area, after all.) I'll quit paddling before I'll let some nutball and regulatory agency fiat force me to strap them onto my boat. -- Wes BTW -- Wes Boyd's Kayak Place now has a new URL -- http://www.kayakplace.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wes Boyd's Kayak Place NEW URL! -- http://www.kayakplace.com Kayaks for Big Guys (And Gals) | Trip Reports | Places To Go | Boats & Gear --------------------------------------------------------------------------- *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
My internal alarm seems to be set to wake up at the same time every day, even if it's Saturday. It's getting to the time of the year where it gets light late. When daylight savings time goes off in a couple weeks, it'll be lighter in the morning at this hour, but get dark that much earlier, too early for after work paddles. I almost roll over and go back to sleep, but a glance out the window reveals that there's a trace of light out there; the neighbor's mercury vapor lamp across the way is fuzzy, revealing a heavy fog. With the season growing short, though, it's too good an opportunity to miss, even through the warmth of the bed is almost unbearably appealing. So, I get up and get dressed, and go though the automatic morning routine. Outside, I discover that it's almost pleasantly warm, in spite of the chill and the damp. I get in the van and head for the convenience store, driving slowly through the fog and the murky glass, waiting for the defroster to at least clear that much up. It's quiet up at the store; Denise is chattering with the new girl, who I don't really know yet. As she takes the money for my coffee, she asks, "Going kayaking again, huh?" "Yeah," I reply. "It's too good a morning to miss." She looks at me a little funny -- but we've long established that my definition of a good morning is different from hers. Back home again, this time to hook up the trailer with the kayak on it, and on down to familiar old Lake Hudson -- too familiar, perhaps; I've been there an awful lot, this summer. But this morning, I know will be different. I take it easy on the back road heading down to the place; the fog is awful thick, and this time of year, with bowhunters out, the deer will be up and moving. I've seen several deer out at this hour the last few days, but this morning, fortunately, I see none. The defroster, and later, the heater, have made the van comfortable, so as I get out to offload the boat, it seems a touch chilly. Maybe I'll wear my jacket after all, I decide; I can always take it off if it gets to be too much later. Unstrapping the boat and carrying it down to the water goes quickly and automatically; I'm really more interested in the lake and the water. By now, the sun should be rising, but there's no hint of it in the moist tendrils of gray surrounding me. I can't even see the shore on the far side of the launch cove, less than a hundred yards off. The shore on either side of the launch fades quickly into indistinct darkness, then nothing, converting this almost too familiar place into a strange and eerie mystery. It only takes a couple minutes to park the van and trailer. I set the coffee cup down on the shore, right in the edge of the water, and carefully get in the boat. I settle into the seat, snap the paddle together, and with a little help from it to balance, reach out, grab the coffee, and set it down between my knees. A couple strokes with the paddle, and I'm backing away from the dark and misty shore. A few more strokes, and I've swung around, pointing off into the featureless dim gray. A glance at the dock at the boat launch gives me a course to follow, and in a few seconds I can see the dark loom of the far shore, not far away. There's a shallow spot I know lies just up ahead, and I really don't want to run into it, so I turn parallel to the dark undefined shore and paddle until it begins to fade away, then make a turn to get around the point. The turn brings me out just about where I want to be, with the little trees along the shoreline just defined enough to be trees, rather than just dark shapes. I take a few more strokes along the shoreline, and see some dark spots up ahead. Great, Skybuster has to be out here hunting ducks in this murk. He has a blind set up right where, in better conditions, a lot of boat traffic has to pass fairly close to the point, and then he gets upset if someone comes within half the lake of him. There are plenty of other places where he could be and not get bothered very much, and it's not like there are any ducks flying in this murk. But, to avoid him, it's time for some instrument kayaking. I glance at the compass, to get a base course, then make a radical turn to the left. 300 degrees ought to be about right, I guess. I could do this on a time and distance, but my watch is buried under the sleeve of my jacket and I don't want to dig around to uncover it, so I just settle for counting a hundred paddle strokes. By the time I've got that done, I turn to the north for another hundred easy strokes, and I know that should put me well past him. I look around, and there's no sign of the shore, or of anything much else. No horizon -- just dark water that somehow turns indefinably light. I turn to the east, trying to paddle quietly for another 200 strokes, then turn to 150 degrees. That course will bring me back into contact with the shore sooner or later, so I don't bother counting strokes, and just try to keep my mind on where I'm going. I find I have to concentrate on the compass, or I'll wander off course. I can hold a compass course a little better with the rudder down, I know, but there's no need for a rudder on this dead calm, moist and foggy morning. Sure enough, after a while, the dim gray ahead of me begins to turn dark, and I know the shore is up there. In a few moments more, I can make out a particular big tree that stands where the shore turns away a little, so adjust my course to stay within sight of shore across this little bight. The fog has thicker spots and thinner ones, and one of the thicker ones is right along the beach, so I find myself having to run right up close to shore to keep sight of it. And, once past the beach, I stay right up close to shore since I know there's a snag out here not far ahead, and I'll be coming at it at a bad angle. After a couple minutes, I see it become distinct, a black spot almost hidden in the dark water and the gray, but comfortably to the left. With it past, I let myself get a little farther away from shore, still close enough to let the darkness fade into some degree of distinctness. It's with a little relief that I see the shoreline to my right fade away into gray; I turn into the middle of the gray patch, and, as expected, find myself in the middle of the drowned channel that once held the stream that feeds the lake. Now, I've got visible shore on both sides of me, and I can paddle along without bushwhacking, although the dim light and the limited visibility makes the place seem strange and foreign. I follow the channel for a ways, around a hard bend, and most of the way along a long straight, scaring up a heron in the process. His big prehistoric pterodactyl-like wings thrust him into the air, and he mutters away into the grayness. Before long, the channel begins to shallow. In good light, I could follow it a bit farther, but I don't want to get too heroic in these conditions, so I slow, turn the boat around -- it requires backing -- and decide to see how the coffee is coming. I take a long sip and look back down the channel, it's far end lost in the drippy distance. After a minute, caffeine urges quenched, I begin to paddle again, trying to not think about mundane things or the chores left to do today, but to impress the strangeness and the wonder of this morning on me. In a few minutes, I'm getting back out to the open, gray expanse of the lake. Before I head out into it, I take another sip of coffee, then turn right to parallel the shore a ways out. Once I'm comfortable with my direction, I take a compass course -- there's a small cove here I don't want to bother going into not far ahead, and the fog seems thick here, so I want to be sure of having a base course that will bring me out on the other side, rather than out into the lake proper -- not that it would be a big deal if that did happen, since this is a small enough lake and I know it well enough that any steady compass course would bring me out someplace where I'd know where I was. But still, it's fun and interesting to have to be more careful with my navigation than normal, just to be able to find my way around this familiar place. In fact, I do lose sight of the shore in any direction for a ways, but try to stick close to that base course I set earlier. But now, my mind is wandering a little, and so is my course; before long, I notice that I've wandered off it a bit. I work to pull myself back onto it, and finally notice the darkness of the shore again in the edge of vision. I turn to try and parallel it, but even holding a steady course along this straight shore, it seems to slip in and out of vision, making me wonder about how straight I'm paddling. Finally I realize that the fog is really thick and patchy here, and the realization is reinforced by the speed with which an indistinct tree goes by -- I can't be much more than twenty or thirty yards off shore, and I can barely see it! The next half mile is touch and go, familiar landmarks looming quickly out of the fog. Finally, at one particular little point, the shore curves away to the right into another wide cove. Rather than follow the shore, and a little upset with myself at my woolgathering the last time I tried to follow a compass course, I turn twenty degrees to the left to pick up a course that I know will bring me out on the far side, and concentrate on holding it. It works, this time; in a few minutes, the dark of the next shore is coming up. I ease to the left a little, to the point where the darkness gets indistinct, and work my way closer to shore. In the distance, I hear a shot, then another, and another. It's the wrong direction for Skybuster, I know, but there were enough trailers in the parking lot when I arrived that some of the other duck blinds around the lake have to be occupied. This point is at the back of a fairly large bay, and I follow it around until I'm heading back more or less to the east again. I look up, and realize that there's more light up there -- the sun is getting well up, now, and there are some thin spots overhead where you can almost make out blue sky. Still, fog is rising off the water in limpid tendrils as I pass them by. I know that this is roughly halfway, so I check my watch -- just an hour from when I started, reasonable, since I'm not paddling hard. Sure enough, things are thinning out -- I must be able to see a couple hundred yards by now. By the time I'm half a mile farther on, I can see enough landmarks at one time that I'm no longer having to bushwhack my way along the shore, and I can pick out a distant point and paddle my way toward it. Now there are things to see. Not far ahead, there's a dead tree, and it's filled with turkey vultures. There's a huge flock that gathers on one of the points of the lake not far away, and there are a lot of birds damply huddling on the bare limbs. I slow my pace and turn to get a count -- 44, in this one rather small tree, and I'm sure I'll see more. Over the next few minutes, I do -- another tree, much the same size, with ten, another with 25, another with 15, yet another with 18. By the time I'm past the buzzard roosts, I'm out into the west end of the lake. This is the smallest and quietest part, consisting of several bays. Tired of running with everything on my right, I take this opportunity to follow the left shore for a ways. After a quarter mile, I can see decoys on the water, and a poorly camouflaged boat along the shore. Unfortunately, he's in a place where I'd have to go right past him to get into one of the bays, so I decide to give it a pass this morning, and turn toward the more distant one. I get up near the turn into the other bay, and hear another series of shots, so realize that there has to be a duck hunter out there, too, and probably in the blind right at the tight spot in the bay. Oh, well, time for a break, and really, time to be thinking about getting on with the chores that have to be done today in the annual hassle of getting ready for winter. I swing the boat around and get set to paddle back across to the entrance to the western section. My coffee has been untouched for a while, and I decide I'd better do something about it. There's still a trace of warmth there, and I polish it off while I can. By now, the fog has lifted so I can see half a mile or more, and the sun is breaking through the high overcast. All of a sudden, it gets bright, and I'm heading right into it, the damp brim of my hat, the rim glistening with sunlit dewdrops pulled low over my eyes until the sun slips back behind a cloud. As I look up, I can hear a funny whistling sound. "Funny sounding duck call," I think, until I realize that it's in the sky and moving. I glance up; no duck call this, but a mute swan flying over. Many lakes around here have swans, and they're something of a pest. I have no idea why we have no nesting pairs on this lake, but suppose that sooner or later we'll have them. Still, I've often been impressed by their powerful flight. I paddle back past the buzzard roosts. Most of the birds are still hunched over, seemingly miserably damp, but a few have spread their wings to try to have what little sunlight there is dry them out some. A few of the birds have taken to the air, and my attention is drawn to them -- perhaps a little too much, for as I round a corner, I'm surprised by a doe and two fawns standing in the water, obviously getting set to swim across the narrow channel. Instantly, I stop paddling, and all three deer stare at this funny apparition that's come out of nowhere. The doe looks at me for a moment, and decides that to a deer, discretion is the only part of valor. She splashes out of the water, the two half-year-old fawns following. I watch as they scramble up the steep bank and disappear into the deep woods along the shore. By now, it's the last lap, and my mind is more on what I've got to do today, but rather than just heading straight across to the landing, I decide to continue to follow the shore the rest of the way back -- it's only another half mile or so. As I draw into the campground area, I see a woman sitting in a lawn chair, fishing pole in hand, bobber out in front of her, a cooler at her side with a coffee cup sitting on top. "Looks like you're set for the day," I say as I get close enough to talk. "Sure am," she says. "There aren't going to be many more like this." "No," I agree. "That front that's coming through tonight looks like it's bringing winter along with it." "We decided we had to get out one last weekend while it's nice," she said as I begin to pass her. "Same here," I said. "You have a good one." I paddled on, and a few minutes later, was back up at the launch, after a nice, peaceful, fascinating paddle on a place that in a way for once wasn't the familiar old lake. Winter is coming, and it won't be long now, but this will be a good trip to remember on the days that the kayak is up on the rack for the winter and I'll be watching the snow blow by, waiting for an eventual springtime. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wes Boyd's Kayak Place NEW URL! -- http://www.kayakplace.com Kayaks for Big Guys (And Gals) | Trip Reports | Places To Go | Boats & Gear --------------------------------------------------------------------------- *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. 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I really enjoyed this read. Thanks Wes. Bob *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
>Hey, I've really been enjoying your stuff, too. You have the advantage of >being able to paddle in a touch more exotic a locale . . . maybe someday. > >Thanks, > >-- Wes Actually my paddle local is about to get a whole lot better. I have been inland for the last year and a half but at the end of this month I will be moving to Petersburg Alaska which is in the Southeast panhandle. Petersburg is on the water and offers lots of paddling possibilities. I will be about 25 miles from the LeConte Glacier, which is the southern most tidewater glacier in the northern hemisphere. The area also is know for its whale concentrations. Anyone on paddlewise wanting to come up and paddle is welcome. Both Alaska Airlines and the Alaskan ferry system stop in Petersburg. thanks Bob >Hey, I've really been enjoying your stuff, too. You have the advantage of >being able to paddle in a touch more exotic a locale . . . maybe someday. > >Thanks, > >-- Wes *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
>At 09:35 PM 10/11/02 UT, Kirk Olsen wrote: >> >>Things have been quiet lately if someone wants to resurrect the sponson >>discussion, we may have someones ear. > >There was quite an extensive round of discussion on this subject and about >this woman and her project on rec.boats.paddle a few weeks ago. The RBP >sponsonwars were quite heated a couple years ago, and there were/are still >plenty of hard feelings. If you want to read the whole discussion, here's the URL on Google: http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&safe=off&th=bb55ba2a281ee 56c&rnum=5 The thread is titled "The Dreaded Debate". It's worth reading, especially the comments, toward the end, on what she and the USCG are up to. Also, check out the following: http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&safe=off&th=52092ec021b44 fd2&seekm=lc92ouk6bvc17q69j79qsfsdt93b13kfhp%404ax.com#link31 It contains an interesting side discussion. You may have to cut and paste these long URLs into a single line to get them to work. -- Wes --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wes Boyd's Kayak Place NEW URL! -- http://www.kayakplace.com Kayaks for Big Guys (And Gals) | Trip Reports | Places To Go | Boats & Gear --------------------------------------------------------------------------- *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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